Strategic Growth and Talent Procurement According to the President and Partner of Certuity, Rich Bursek

No matter what your business does, it’s able to do it because of the people on your team. Rich Bursek, the President of Certuity and a long-time leader in the financial services field, says that attracting, building, and retaining a talented pool of team members is essential for any business’s success.

This has always been important, but it’s become even more crucial over the last few years as the employment market has become increasingly challenging and competitive. COVID-19 and the way that work in general has shifted have only served to emphasize the challenge.

Companies all across the world must work hard to develop a synergy between strategic growth and talent procurement. Only then will they achieve sustainable business success. 

Here are some steps Bursek suggests taking to acquire and develop talent pools that help drive growth, adapt to market shifts, and maintain a competitive edge.

Create a Strategy

Too often, businesses approach recruitment as simply filling an open position. That approach is very short-sighted, though, and won’t contribute to your company achieving its long-term goals.

“You need to create a sound strategy for recruiting,” says Bursek. “It’s like any other aspect of your business — if you want to build a solid team, you need to have a plan for doing so.”

This means that recruitment can’t just include how you’re going to hire new people. It also has to include how you’re going to onboard, train, educate, and grow them over time. In this sense, you’re setting your workers up for sustained success.

Brand Yourself to Workers

Branding typically relates to how companies position themselves for their customers, clients, partners, and vendors. But to be truly successful in talent procurement, you must think about how you have branded yourself to potential workers.

“A lot of workers these days consider a business’s brand when they’re applying for jobs. They want to know what you value, how you treat your workers, and what your long-term vision is,” says Bursek. 

You need to communicate why your company is an attractive place to work, why it’s fun to work there, that you have a solid mission, and that you take care of your workers. And you must ensure that you integrate your company’s personality into the mix.

“If you can hit on all these points, you’ll end up attracting more applicants who are like-minded to the talent already on your team. This will make transitions far more seamless and lead to immediate success,” says Bursek.

Focus on Skills

The traditional approach to recruitment was to attract and hire the people with the most credentials — those who had the highest degrees and the most experience in the field.

While those facets of recruitment are still important, Rich Bursek suggests that to maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace, companies must adopt a more skills-based approach.

“I’ve implemented a whole new approach to attracting and retaining talent,” says Bursek. “We look for skills that matter to our company. This approach is the key reason I’ve been able to bring on such wonderful people at Certuity in recent roles like our Managing Directors and our new Director of Investments and Market Research.”

Before you can look for these skills in others, though, you have to know what you need. Does your company value organizational skills? Friendly communication? Savvy negotiation tactics? All of the above? If so, you must clearly define these skills as being essential to your company’s hiring practices.

According to Bursek, once you’re able to identify these skills, you’ll begin to recruit the ideal candidates, better tailor your interview process, and ultimately find the best people.